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The monograph examines the circumstances of the abolition of the autonomy of Sloboda Ukraine in 1765 and the integration of this region into the Russian Empire in the following decades. The study focuses on three main topics: the specifics of Russian enlightened absolutism, the nature and role of imperial unification, and the situation of Sloboda society in the late eighteenth century. Particular attention is paid to clarifying the place of Sloboda Ukraine in the symbolic geography of the Russian Empire, the transformation of regional identities under the influence of integration transformations, and the analysis of the phenomenon of the Ukrainian Enlightenment as a potential alternative to St. Petersburg enlightened absolutism. For anyone interested in the issues of empire and imperialism, the history of Ukraine and Ukrainian-Russian relations.